The Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers has converted its systems for chilling cold and freezer rooms used for food storage to accommodate DuPont ISCEON 9 Series refrigerants.
The move was in anticipation of the impending ban of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants in Saudi Arabia and the consequent shortage of recycled CFCs after a government-imposed January 1, 2010 deadline.
Sheraton Riyadh chief engineer Sen Renganadhan and DuPont Refrigerants EMEA technical program manager Dr Frank Rinne coordinated to change refrigeration units used for the hotel’s cold and freezer rooms from R-12 to ISCEON MO49 Plus, and R-502 to ISCEON MO79, respectively. The transition to the environmentally-friendly refrigerants was achieved with minimum disruption to daily business and with only minor mechanical modifications to the existing system.
Dr Rinne explained: “Virgin CFC refrigerants such as R-12 and R-502 will soon be banned in Saudi Arabia under the Montreal Protocol, and no imports will be allowed. This leaves owners of equipment still operating with CFC refrigerants with the task of finding an alternative whilst trying to minimise disruption to normal operation of their business. They have three options: to replace existing equipment at a high cost; to rely on the availability of recycled CFC, where demand is highly likely to outstrip supply; or to convert their existing system to ISCEON 9 Series products, which in the majority of direct expansion systems do not require a change of oil type and thus avoid the time consuming and costly oil flushing procedure.”
The simple conversion of the units involved removal of the original R-12 and R-502 charges, replacement of the filter dryer, changing the elastomer seals in the solenoid valves and charging the systems with the ISCEON refrigerants. The modification was completed in 90 minutes while the food remained in the storage rooms; the ISCEON MO49 Plus and MO79 demonstrated significantly lower discharge temperatures, which is beneficial for the extreme climate conditions in Saudi Arabia.
“This was a very easy, and cost effective conversion. Our options to move away from ozone-depleting R-12 and R-502 would have been to either replace the entire cold room and freezer room systems, or carry out a substantial, and costly, mechanical conversion to enable the rooms to operate with R-404A. Moreover, a conversion to R-404A would require several flushings to remove the mineral oil and replace it with polyolester oil, while the significantly higher pressures would require a modification of the condenser,” said Renganadhan.
DuPont Fluorochemicals is a leading global supplier of refrigerants, using science and technology, market knowledge and global reach to provide sustainable materials and solutions to enhance personal comfort, enable food preservation, improve industrial processing and reduce environmental footprints.
DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere.
Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation. – TradeArabia News Service